Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, hello nappies and sleepless nights

Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born weighing 7lb 15oz, to an unnamed woman in California.
There was speculation that his second name was a tribute to Sir Elton’s friendship with the late singer Michael Jackson and Levon is the title of a song from Sir Elton’s 1971 album Madman Across The Water.
The couple are believed to have paid an agency more than £100,000.
“We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment,” Sir Elton, 63, and Mr Furnish, 48, said in a joint statement. “Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents.”
It was not clear whether the birth was natural, induced or the result of an elective Caesarean. Mr Furnish, as the younger man by 15 years, is thought more likely to be the sperm donor.
He said it typically took 18 months for a couple to complete the process, and the total cost for a same-sex couple, including medical and legal expenses, was about $150,000, including a $20,000 to $30,000 fee for the surrogate mother.
Prospective parents usually meet the surrogate several times before the pregnancy, and provide the agency with photographs of the baby up to the age of 24 months.
Age was considered when prospective parents applied: “One might be a bit older but the other might be younger. We do worry about longevity but it averages out.”
Sir Elton and Mr Furnish’s civil partnership was formalised in 2005 and the singer had spoken of his desire to become a father, announcing last autumn that he had overcome his doubts about his age and wanted to adopt a 14-month-old orphan boy from Ukraine.
The plans were thwarted by Ukrainian laws which do not recognise same-sex civil partnerships. British law changed in April when it became legal for two men to have a child by a surrogate and for both men’s names to appear on the birth certificate as legal parents.
Surrogacy is still tightly regulated in Britain and couples often consider travelling abroad, where the rules are less strict.
Sir Elton’s announcement was greeted with concern from some groups. Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “Although I am sure Elton’s child will not want for anything, money is not everything. There is very much an age for being a parent and an age for being a grandparent.
“It would be very difficult to adopt a child at 63 but we seem to have a different approach to approving surrogacy parents.”
Andrea Williams, head of Christian Concern, said: “Children are not commodities. Just because you can buy or access something does not give you the right to do so.”
Elizabeth Hurley, the model and actress, was among the first to offer her best wishes, writing on the Twitter microblogging service: “Massive congratulations to David and Elton on having their beautiful son. Can’t wait for my first cuddle.”
Piers Morgan, who spoke to Sir Elton on ITV’s Life Stories, was caught out by the news, writing: “Feel such a fool – Sir Elton never even hinted he was pregnant during our interview.”
The singer Boy George commented: “What does it matter, gay or straight, if they make great loving parents?”

Kept From a Dying Partner's Bedside - No More!

President Obama on last Thursday ordered his health secretary to issue new rules aimed at granting hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners.

The White House announced the rule changes, which will also make it easier for gay men and lesbians to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners, in a memorandum released Thursday night. In it, the president said the new rules would affect any hospital that participates in Medicare or Medicaid, the government programs to cover the elderly and the poor.

“Every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a loved one at their sides,” Mr. Obama said in the memorandum, adding that the rules could also help widows and widowers who rely on friends and members of religious orders who care for one another. But he says gay men and lesbians are “uniquely affected” because they are often barred from visiting partners with whom they have spent decades.

Richard Socarides, who advised President Bill Clinton on gay rights issues, said that while the memorandum on its own did not grant any new rights, it did “draw attention to the very real and tragic situations many gays and lesbians face when a partner is hospitalized.”

Ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to find a better way to handle such situations, Mr. Socarides said, is “the kind of thing the gay community was hoping Obama would do right after he was inaugurated.”

Several states have tried to put an end to discrimination against same-sex couples, and Mr. Obama said he intended to build on those efforts. He said the new rules would make clear that designated visitors should enjoy visiting privileges that are no more restrictive than those enjoyed by immediate family members.

The rules will take time to draft and put in place, and so Mr. Obama’s order will have no immediate effect. Even so, gay rights groups called it a major advance for the families of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender individuals.

“It’s a huge deal,” said David Smith, vice president of policy for the Human Rights Campaign, which worked with the White House to develop the memorandum, in an interview Thursday night. “Nearly every hospital in the country will now be required to provide hospital visitation rights to LGBT families. It’s an enormous step. In the absence of equal marriage rights in most jurisdictions, this step provides an essential right to LGBT families for a gay person or a lesbian person to spend time with their partner in a critical situation.”

In some instances in the past, hospitals have barred bedside visits by the person who held the medical power of attorney for a patient.

Gay rights advocates said the rules change was inspired by one of those cases involving a same-sex couple, Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, who were profiled in The New York Times last year. After Ms. Pond was stricken with a fatal brain aneurysm, Ms. Langbehn was denied visiting rights in 2007 by a Florida hospital. Although Ms. Langbehn had power of attorney and she and Ms. Pond were parents to four children they had adopted, the hospital refused for eight hours to allow her and the children to see Ms. Pond, her partner for 18 years. Ms. Pond died as Ms. Langbehn tried in vain to get to her side.

Ms. Langbehn, represented by Lambda Legal, a legal advocacy organization, brought suit against the hospital, Jackson Memorial in Miami, but lost. On Thursday night, Mr. Obama called her from Air Force One to say that he had been moved by her case.

“I was so humbled that he would know Lisa’s name and know our story,” Ms. Langbehn said in a telephone interview. “He apologized for how we were treated. For the last three years, that’s what I’ve been asking the hospital to do. Even now, three years later, they still refuse to apologize to the children and I for the fact that Lisa died alone.”

Mr. Obama campaigned saying he would fight for the rights of gay men and lesbians, but he has been under pressure since the beginning of his presidency to be a stronger advocate for their issues.

Many gay men and lesbians grew disenchanted with what they viewed as his foot-dragging on reversing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that bars them from serving openly in the military. The president said in his State of the Union address this year that he intended to move to overturn the policy, and his administration has been taking steps to do so.

The memorandum is intended to “help ensure that patients will be able to face difficult times in hospitals with compassion, dignity and respect,” a White House spokesman, Shin Inouye, said Thursday night. “By taking these steps, we can better protect the interests and needs of patients that are gay or lesbian, widows and widowers with no children, members of religious orders, or others for whom their loved ones are not always immediate relatives. Because all Americans should be able to have loved ones there for them in their time of need.”